Super Duper Music Looper

My son just received this product and he loves it, it really allowskids to be creative with music and they are so proud of what theycreate. My only complaint is that the CD has to be in the drive forthe program to work, you cannot do a complete install. This makes ithard for portability purposes on a laptop, other than that it's beena huge success.

I got this to goof around with and to consider letting my 3-year-old daughter play with. The program is probably too advanced for my daughter, though I'm sure it's usable by some 4 and 5 year olds (it's recommended for ages 6 to 9). But I find it pretty fun, and it seems like, even for an adult, a good first step toward using Sony's Acid products. So I recommend it, but with reservations.As another reviewer noted, the program expects you to have the CD inserted (the loops -- the building blocks of the songs -- are on the CD). This is a huge drag. There's a way around it, but it requires some computer savvy. Specifically, you have to copy an image (an ISO file) of the installation CD to your hard drive, then "mount" that image so that your computer thinks the CD is in your drive. You can then run Super Duper Looper and, when it asks where the CD is located, you can point it to your mounted ISO file. I'll try to explain briefly how this can be done with free software in Windows XP SP2.You need two pieces of software: (1) an ISO-creation program, and (2) an ISO-mounting program.You can get a free ISO-creation program called ISO Recorder from [...] . Make sure you look at the programmer's how-to page at [...] to see how to use it (when you install ISO Recorder, you won't find a shortcut to it, because it is just a shell extension, as the how-to explains). This will allow you to create an ISO image -- i.e., a file on your hard drive -- of the Super Duper Looper installation disk. You can save it wherever you want; next you need to mount it.For mounting the ISO in Windows XP, you can get a free program from Microsoft (it's not officially supported but seems to work fine) called the Virtual CD-ROM Control Panel for XP. Go to this URL and search for "virtual CD" and you'll see a link to it: [...] . Instructions for installing and using the Virtual CD-ROM Control Panel are in the README.TXT file that comes with the program.Note that when you run Super Duper Looper after installing it, and after creating and mounting the ISO of the installation disk, you will need to manually type in Super Duper Looper's dialog box the drive letter you assigned to the ISO file when you mounted it. (The drop-down list in Super Duper Looper's dialog box will only show you the letters of your actual CD or DVD drives; since the ISO file is really a virtual CD drive, you need to manually enter the drive letter.)Note: If you're running Vista, you should still be able to create and mount an ISO of the Super Duper Looper installation disk. There's a version of ISO Recorder available for Vista. You'll need a different ISO-mounting program, though, since the Virtual CD Control Panel mentioned above is for XP only. I think a program called Virtual Clone Drive (Google it) will work, but I haven't tried it.Also: I don't know whether Sony would argue that this violates their copyright. I don't think it should -- it seems like it's obviously fair use -- but if you're worried about that sort of thing, consult a lawyer. (I'm a lawyer, but I'm not YOUR lawyer, and this review is not legal advice.)Good luck!

My sister and I are both piano teachers with studios in our homes. She currently has a computer lab and I am in the process of setting mine up. I was trying out some of the programs on her lab and came upon Super Dooper Music Looper. It is absolutely wonderful!! I had a blast creating a few dance tunes and listening to all of the recorded loops. One of my sister's students had even created an orchestral piece that sounded like dramatic cinema music! Besides just the sheer fun of creating your own music, the program is set up in a way that can help teach 4 bar phrasing, tempo selection, the tambre of different instruments, duple rhythms, and composition. This is a great introduction for students to the world of digital music, too! I found the program very user friendly! I am also a music therapist and am looking forward to using this program with my high-functioning special needs students!Just adding a comment a few years later - I had to upgrade to vista and the program no longer functions. Bummer. My students miss it and I haven't been able to find anything as user-friendly for the young ones.

I ordered this a few years ago. I received a reinstall update disc which doesn't work unless you have the original on the machine. I was really disappointed because it didn't work. It doesn't install the original software. It was just an update.

My kids love this. I find it annoying that all the projects are saved in the directory with the program itself, but that's somewhat typical of Windows programs. Too bad this isn't available for the Mac.

My daughter uses the Apple program at school and wanted a music creation program to use at home on her notebook. We looked at reviews together and chose this software. When it arrived, my wife almost returned it because the package says it is for kids 6 to 9 years old. However, based on these reviews, I advised we keep it. It was a good move. This is simple to use and she's having a great time with it, making fun music riffs. It won't let her become a serious composer, but that was not our goal.

this is the second time I've bought this software and the second time it wont open on any of the computers I have (3 of them). I bought the sony version and gave it to my nephew and it worked fine.

A really fantastic and easy-to-use program. WHY did Sony get rid of it?? ACID just isn't a kid- or basic user-friendly replacement at all, way too complicated and full of extra junk I don't need. I'm so glad I've finally found someone still selling it and I'll definitely be buying when I have the money.